The Balloon Boy hoax, one year later

Do you remember what you were doing on Oct. 15, 2009? No? Here’s a hint: Balloon Boy.

Ah yes, chances are good that a year ago today you were one of millions of people across the world following the story of a six-year-old boy caught in a weird, flying saucer-shaped runaway balloon. Chances are you were watching the drama unfold live on television or following the dramatic updates on your favourite news website.

For hours we watched helpless as the balloon streaked across the Colorado sky at breakneck speed, hoping against hope that little Falcon (yes, Falcon!) Heene could somehow hang on and come out of his predicament alive.

Finally the balloon crashed to the ground. And soon after too, did the story.

It turns out that little Falcon was not in the balloon at all. A few hours after it landed, the boy was found hiding in a box in his family’s attic.

Some media outlets were immediately criticized for downplaying the fact that there was little evidence that the boy was in the balloon, supposedly to pump up the drama and ratings.

Also immediately, suspicions were raised that the whole event was a hoax pulled off by the boy’s fame-hungry parents, who had already twice appeared on reality TV show Wife Swap.

Police at first doubted it could be a hoax, but that changed when Falcon said “we did this for show” in a TV interview the next day. Eventually, father Richard Heene admitted that the stunt was pulled in an attempt to land the family its own reality show.

Falcon’s parents were charged and Richard served 90 days in jail along with community service and a $36,000 fine. Mother Mayumi Heene was sentenced to 20 days in jail, to be served through supervised community service.